


Sunshine

by ohemdee



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Found Family, Friendship Is The Best Ship, Get together fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-13
Updated: 2017-04-13
Packaged: 2018-10-18 07:08:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,211
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10611795
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ohemdee/pseuds/ohemdee
Summary: Poe and Rey meet, and a relationship begins to blossom between them. Finn recovers and everyone is happy.





	

It wasn’t the first time he had seen her, but it was the first chance he’d had to really look at her, and she was crying silently into a comatose man’s hospital bedsheets. Her shoulders were shaking with the effort it took to suppress her sobs, and every part of him wanted to step in and comfort her, although a small, much smarter part said that people who were crying silently were trying to avoid that sort of interaction. He stepped as quietly as he could from the room, deciding to come back later, and live with the guilt of not helping her through her pain.  
  
Finn, bless his fighter’s soul, was awake and talkative when Poe returned the next day. The stray girl (he really should learn her name) was there again, this time all sunshine and smiles, grinning openly at Finn while he recounted his bravado aboard Starkiller base for her. She looked at the door when Poe walked in, her expression closing off only marginally with his entrance, and just as quickly checked back on Finn to make sure Poe was an acceptable guest.  
  
Finn was positively gleeful, and immediately moved to try and grab a cushion to put on the other bedside chair, earning him a stern look, and small, rather unheated threat from Rey. Poe smiled at the pair as he took the seat on the other side of Finn’s bed.  
  
“Heard you’ve made quite a name for yourself.” Finn delighted in the attention, and took up his story again, this time with even more heroic effort on his part, making Rey and Poe exchange some meaningful glances.  
  
“And then I used a lightsaber, a real lightsaber Poe! Just like a Jedi!” Finn tried to mimic the slashes and parries of his fight, grimacing a bit as the wound on his back pulled. “Oh, hey, have you two met?” Rey shook her head in response.  
  
“Rey, this is Poe Dameron, the best pilot in the Resistance.” Poe waved a bit, taking in the entirety of Rey as she levelled him with a steady gaze. “Poe, this is Rey. She’s going to be a Jedi!” Rey rolled her eyes.  
  
“Maybe, Finn. I don’t have a teacher.”  
  
“Somehow I don’t think that will stop you.” Rey looked back a Poe sharply, eyes narrowed, trying to decide if that was a compliment or not. He was saved from her by the nurse walking in to shoo them out so Finn could get some more rest and have his bacta re-applied. He grabbed Rey’s hand when she stood.  
  
“You’ll be back tomorrow right? You too, Poe?”  
  
“Of course, buddy.” Rey dipped her head in agreement, and Finn relaxed back, letting the nurse inject his painkillers and sedatives, rapidly drifting to unconsciousness.  
  
Rey and Poe left together in an awkward silence. “So, I guess I’ll see you tomorrow?” Rey gave him a sideways glance.  
  
“Yeah, see you then.” She nodded curtly and set off somewhere, clearly expecting him not to follow. He paused for a moment, and watched her go before shaking his head and walking the other way, unfortunately the much longer way to the mess hall.  
  
Finn’s recovery went much more smoothly than anyone could have hoped for, and within the week he was back on his feet, tired, but determined. Word had gotten around quickly about his history and what he had done for them, and he was adopted quickly into the Resistance family, dragging Rey, however reluctantly, along with him. Poe had no complaints about that. He was finding her sharp and quick-witted, funny when she wanted to be, but still clearly unused to the sheer amount of humanity that came with living on a military base. More than once Poe missed her at lunch only to find her later, surrounded by droids who realised she would do whatever minor repairs they asked for in exchange for any food they could bring her. And Poe liked anyone that BB-8 liked, and his droid absolutely adored Rey.  
  
More than once he found her standing at the edge of the salvage garage for X-Wings that were only useable for parts, at first looking in curiously, and then more forlornly with each visit when she figured out what they were doing. A couple of times he tried to catch her eye and wave her in, but she always shied away, and he wouldn’t see her again until dinner. A couple of weeks of this routine went by before he finally gave in and brought it up in the mess hall. Finn’s face lit up, and he whipped around in his chair to look at Rey excitedly, who in turn had stopped with her fork halfway to her mouth.  
  
“But I don’t know anything about new ships! I was taking apart old Empire vessels, not X-Wings.”  
  
Finn glared at her. “You figured out how to fix the Millennium Falcon on the fly, Rey, I’m sure you could learn. Plus if Luke isn’t going to start teaching you right away, you may as well do something other than wash dishes.” Rey glared right back at him, and Poe decided to intervene before they started to really get into it.  
  
“Hey, hey, guys it was just an offer. If you want to come check it out, Rey, no pressure, but we could always use an extra set of hands. And it’s not like these are functional X-wings. We’re just using them for parts.” Rey and Finn both relaxed back, but Finn still glanced over at her pointedly when Poe finished, which Rey staunchly ignored.  
  
“Sure, Poe, I’ll stop by tomorrow. See what you’ve got.” They finished the rest of their meal in silence.  
  
As good as her word, Rey was in the shop the next morning, looking curiously around at the mechanics, and smiling when she caught sight of Poe. “Hey, I’m here, what do you want help with?”  
  
He waved her over to the engine he was working under. “Come under with me, I’m stripping this. It’s got some sort of wiring issue, everything is fried, but I’m hoping we can get something out of it.” He looked down at he clothes. “Maybe grab some coveralls first. This might get messy.”  
  
He had definitely been right to pull her under with him. Her fingers were nimble, and she knew exactly what to look for in the remaining parts. Poe watched her work with some amazement as she found parts that he didn’t think were even accessible from this angle, carefully working her way around until she had a small haul of useful odds and ends.  
  
“You might just find yourself the best salvage mechanic we have.” He tried to be casual with the comment, but failed on the delivery. “Guess all the practice helps you out.”  
  
She nodded. “When all you can do for food is take engines apart, you get good at finding things no one else does. And I like seeing how they work.” She grinned up at him. “Thanks, Poe. I should have come by earlier, but I didn’t know if anyone would want me here.”  
  
He opened his mouth to reply just as the lunch bell rang, and the shop echoed with the sounds of dropped tools and muffled excitement as the mechanics jokingly pushed each other towards food. Rey’s stomach grumbled, and she looked down with surprise. “Guess I was working harder than I thought.”  
  
Poe slung his arm around her shoulders. “Guess so, scavenger. Let’s go eat.”  
  
Finn was waiting for them at the entrance of the mess, his face breaking into a smile when he saw them walking up. “Rey, I think you’re supposed to leave the grease on the engine, not wear it.”  
  
She smiled back a bit too sweetly, and Poe found himself in the middle of a wrestling match with Rey managing to transfer quite a bit of engine grease and dirt onto Finn. Finally he extricated himself, wrapped his arms around both of their necks and nearly hauled them to food.  
  
Post-lunch, Rey had to take off to meet with Luke, leaving him and Finn to hang out for the afternoon. Despite his good appearances, Finn still couldn’t keep up pace for an entire day- his injury was still plaguing him. Rehab was a slow process, and Poe was more than happy to take an afternoon to play dejarik. They sat out in the sunshine, and Finn chatted his ear off. As it turned out, not having anything to do meant that everyone had been taking turns sitting with him and sharing all of their gossip, making Finn a wealth of information about the everything and everyone on the base. Poe half-listened to the rather dramatic break-up between two pilots, when some movement on the lawn below caught his eye.  
  
“I thought Luke wasn’t going to train Rey?”  
  
Finn looked down at the pair. “He must have changed his mind. She hasn’t said anything, but I don’t know if you’ve noticed that she kind of keeps to herself.”  
  
“Hope I don’t lose her.” Finn’s expression turned quizzical. “As a mechanic, Finn! She did really good work today.”  
  
“I’m sure that’s it.” Finn half smiled and poured himself more tea. “Just as a mechanic.”  
  
“Yes, Finn. She’s young, she just got here. No other way.”  
  
Finn sipped on his drink. “I don’t think it’s me that you have to convince. And, for the record, I don’t think Rey would mind.”  
  
Poe took the opportunity to beat Finn soundly in their game, only getting distracted once or twice by the training in the field below.  
  
The next morning found Rey already in his shop before he arrived , tinkering with an old speeder someone had pulled out of somewhere.  
  
“Morning, sunshine. I thought you would have important Jedi things to be doing.” Her brow furrowed a bit, although he didn’t know if that was in response to the nickname or his comment.  
  
“Master Skywalker agreed to give me every other morning off to come work here. I didn’t want to quit after my first day, and I was having fun.” She looked up at him. “I hope that’s okay.”  
  
Poe smiled warmly back at her. “Of course it is, I’m happy to have you as much of you as I can get. Now leave that thing, and come check out what they pulled in from the yard yesterday.”  
  
They got lost in the (nearly) functional engine someone had hauled in. Rey carefully worked to extract a turbo booster, finally getting it out and showing Poe her prize just as the lunch bell rang and her face fell. “Is it that time already?”  
  
Poe laughed. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen you disappointed about food before.”  
  
“No, it’s not that, it’s just I thought I had a little longer in here.” She looked around the shop. “I’m excited about training too, but I’ve never been allowed to do this without my life on the line, and now I just don’t know what I want. It was much easier when we were on the run.” Her face tipped up towards his. “Sorry, Poe, I didn’t mean to say so much.”  
  
He wanted to pull her into a hug, but settled for resting his hand on her shoulder and running his thumb over her collarbone. “I think you just have a lot of choices now, and that’s gotta be tough when you aren’t used to it.” His breath hitched for just a second when she tilted her head sideways to rest her cheek on his knuckles. She closed her eyes for half a second, and he felt her chest expand with her breath.  
  
“Thanks again Poe. I’m happy I met you.” He couldn’t restrain his laugh when she raised her head. “What!” Her temper was always quick to rise.  
  
“You just picked the wrong hand to lean on.” She grabbed his hand off her shoulder and inspected the black streaks across the back of it.  
  
“Finn will not let me hear the end of this one.”  
  
“Here, hold still.” Poe grabbed a mostly clean rag out of his pocket and wiped at her face, leaving only the faintest traces of black behind. “There all better.” His hand lingered for perhaps a second longer than was strictly necessary, but Rey made no protest. Instead her smile widened.  
  
“Race you to lunch?” And she took off, leaving him no option but to run after her.  
  
They arrived to lunch late, both huffing with the exertion, and laughing breathlessly. “Maybe next time we race downhill.” Rey said as she grabbed her tray and leaned on the lunch counter, giggling as Poe stuck his tongue out at her.  
  
“I think my footrace days are long over.”  
  
“I think you did just fine.” She reached over and stole half of his dessert amidst his protests. “A prize for winning.”  
  
“Okay, but only because I think you would a sore winner otherwise.” Which made her glare at him.  
  
Finn looked between them when they joined him and Jessika at “their” table. “You guys doing okay?”  
  
“Rey felt the need to show off her running skills.” He felt her kick him under the table.  
  
Jessika giggled. “I’m sure that was it.”  
  
Rey wolfed down her lunch, and took off again just as quickly, mumbling about training, and running late. Finn sighed. “I don’t think I’m going to see much of her for a long time.”  
  
Poe nodded, “She’s definitely keeping a busy schedule. Maybe once your back is better we can get you working on some stuff in the shop.” Finn brightened at the thought.  
  
Poe found himself waiting for Rey to show up for half the morning before he remembered that she was only coming every other day, and feeling oddly out of sorts with the situation. She hadn’t even been there that long and somehow had integrated herself into his daily routine. He let his mind drift, daydreaming of things that would probably never happen when the attack alarm began to and he was called to action, running to the X-Wing bay and halfway suited up before his mind caught up with what he was doing. He skimmed over the mission report he was handed. Just some First Order scouts getting a little too close, and him and Black Squadron would be leading them away. Easy enough.  
  
They took off in formation, and he revelled in the feeling of flight for just a moment before re-focussing. It had been far too long since they had done anything other than reconnaissance, and he had missed the excitement that came with an actual mission. Quickly, they narrowed in on the scouts and led them on a merry chase throughout the base’s sector, hopefully doing a convincing enough job to keep them far away, when he heard Blue Leader making emergency calls through the comms.  
  
“Black Leader we have a Code Echo, do you copy? Code Echo at the base, Blue Leader, over.”  
  
“I copy, Blue Leader, what’s the situation? Over.”  
  
“The scouts were a decoy, we need you back here ASAP, evacuating all personnel, over.” Poe felt his heart jump into his throat, and called his squadron to hyperspace formation, praying they wouldn’t be too late.  
  
By the time they arrived, nearly everyone was off-base, and Blue and Red squadron were locked in a dogfight that was decimating what was left on the planet. Poe sent his pilots in, scanning the area below, looking for stragglers to call support for before joining in the fray. They were fortunate to be on a base that had some firepower on the ground, or the battle could have turned more quickly that Poe would like to think about. He gunned down two TIE fighters, sending them into a third before moving to help Jessika get rid of hers. Battles always passed in a blur to him; some people seemed to remember every detail, but Poe only caught glimpses here and there. He had read somewhere about “battle meditation”, a Jedi term, but he understood what they meant. His brain was simply to focussed on the fight to take in anything else, only coming back to himself when the last shot was fired.  
  
They won, but only marginally, with unfortunate losses for Red Squadron, who were the first to respond. He held his breath as his pilots sounded off, letting it out when they all called in safe, with only minor injuries to report. Poe knew, on the surface at least, that everyone knew what they were getting into, but he carried losses in his own crew heavily. They followed Blue Leader out, the usual chatter over comms after a battle subdued. They still didn’t know the losses on the base, and more than one pilot had a family on the ground. Poe’s stomach clenched when he thought of Rey and Finn. Finn, at least, would have been on medical evac, probably one of the first off, but Rey would have stayed, and, knowing her, tried to help everyone else out first. The comm silence broke as they came into land onto the new base, a lush, thankfully non-tropical, forest coming into view, everyone taking bets on the smells, the temperature, and whether or not they would get actually seasons, instead of just “hot all the time” or “freezing their asses off”.  
  
Poe turned his X-Wing over to the mechanic on the ground, and was swept up in one of Finn’s phenomenal hugs as soon as he turned around. “Hey, buddy, worried about me?”  
  
Finn laughed. “I guess maybe I shouldn’t be.”  
  
Poe looked around, getting more concerned as he scanned the people on the tarmac. “Where’s-”  
  
“She’s in medical. Nothing too-” Finn broke off as Poe took off towards the base, brushing past several people who tried to congratulate him on the battle, and busting through the hospital doors, earning him several disapproving looks from the nurses and doctors.  
  
Rey was sitting on an exam table, watching curiously as one of her arms was being covered in bacta and bandaged over. She had several patches on her face, across her cheekbone and over her eye, and one shoe off, revealing a black and blue foot.  
  
“Rey!” She looked up just as Poe crushed her into a hug.  
  
“Poe! I’m so glad you’re alright, I was so worried about you.”  
  
He leaned back, his hands still covering her waist. “Worried about me? You were on the ground! And what happened?” He gently brushed over her cheek with his thumb, frowning when she hissed in a breath.  
  
“I was moving people out of the buildings, and one of them sort of, well, collapsed. On me. Luke stopped it, but he was a bit slow. I guess maybe I should have been practicing more Force stuff instead of taking apart ships. I’m okay though, really. A couple of days, and I’ll be fine.”  
  
“A building collapsed.” Rey nodded. “On top of you.” She nodded again, this time developing a crease between her eyebrows. Poe wanted to shake her. “Maybe take more than a couple of days off.” This time the doctor next to him began to nod earnestly, and Rey rolled her eyes.  
  
“I’ll be fine.” She demonstrated this very effectively as she lightly hopped off the table, and almost hit the ground with pain when her left foot came down on the floor. Poe caught her, and lifted her back onto the table.  
  
“Right as rain.” He looked at the doctor. “Maybe some crutches? She won’t stop trying to go places, and it’s just going to make your job harder if she keeps re-breaking that foot.” Rey crossed her arms over her chest, but, to her credit, compliantly took the crutches when they were offered.  
  
“Come on, we gotta get moving, or you are going to miss out on the time-honoured tradition of fighting for your room on the new base.” He looked back and bit his cheek as he watched her struggle with the crutches, before quietly taking them and demonstrating their proper use.  
  
“Thanks.” She muttered, a bit sheepish. “I didn’t know they would be hard to use.”  
  
“We might have to put our races on hold for a bit.” He smiled down at her. “I wouldn’t want to have an unfair advantage.”  
  
She grinned the whole way to the barracks, which quickly transformed into a look of horror at the chaos of deciding sleeping arrangements. “I thought you were joking about fighting for rooms.”  
  
His hand flew to his chest. “I would never joke about anything so serious as sleep. Prepare yourself Rey, although I think the crutches might actually give you an advantage.”  
  
She held one up for inspection. “They are a bit like my staff.”  
  
Poe couldn’t help but feel a well of pride as Rey pushed through the crowd, and a strange sort of excitement when she wound up in the room next to his. “It’s so huge, Poe! And I have my own window!” Her eyes were shining, and he fought the impulse to sweep her up in his arms.  
  
The customary celebration that followed every battle won had already begun to take over the mess hall by they time Poe, Rey and Finn arrived, Finn already participating with a bottle shared between him and Jessika that Poe didn’t want to know the origin of. Rey stopped on the edge of the hall, already looking appalled at the noise and activity.  
  
“Maybe I’ll just turn in for the night.”  
  
Poe grabbed one of her crutches and tucked her arm through his. “Just stay for a bit, I promise I won’t ditch you. And who knows, maybe you’ll like it.”  
  
Rey pulled a face that indicated, no, she would definitely not like it, but also walked in with him. Immediately, a couple walked up to them, one woman hugging her while the other shook her hand enthusiastically.  
  
“Rey, I’m so happy to see you on your feet. Thank you, thank you, we wouldn’t have made it without you.”  
  
The sentiment was repeated by a handful of others as her and Poe crossed the floor to catch up with Finn, Rey looking more shocked with every repeated thanks. Poe shoved a beer into her hand.  
  
“Sit, Rey, or I think you might fall over.” He helped her lower herself to a seat next to Jessika, and took the one across from them.  
  
Rey let Finn and Jessika dominate the conversation, injecting bits when she had the opportunity, but keeping to herself, one eye trained on the exit. Even for Rey, this was a bit more skittish than usual. He left her to sit while he filled two dinner plates, watching her carefully as she leaned into the table, playing with her beer glass, and clearly trying to listen to what Finn was telling her without actually concentrating on it, instead watching the doors, the windows, the skylights, looking a bit lost.  
  
She got quieter as the evening progressed, and Finn started to look more concerned for her health, but no matter what tactic he tried, she just informed him she was fine, and no the crowd wasn’t bothering her, and yes of course, she would let them know if she wanted to leave so they could help her. After watching this play out for an hour or so, Poe gave up, got up, and offered his arm, informing the crowd around that had begun to form around their table as the drinking games progressed that a true gentleman knew when a lady was done with the evening, and winking at Rey. He helped her to her feet, taking her spare crutch and acting as one in its absence. She let out a small breath when they left the hall, and sucked in air sharply as soon as they were in the outdoors.  
  
“Poe, can we just stop for a minute?” To his surprise a small, hiccupped sob escaped her chest. “I’m so sorry, I don’t know what’s wrong with me.”  
  
Gently he took her other crutch and laid the pair on the ground, pulling her into his chest. “Was that the first battle you’ve ever seen?”  
  
She nodded against his neck, moving in closer to him. “There were two people I couldn’t save from the building, Poe. If I were just stronger in the Force, or maybe if I hadn’t spent so much time in the shop and instead went training with Luke, maybe I could’ve stopped it, just for long enough.”  
  
He shushed her, resting his lips against her temple as she dissolved, rocking her gently. “Rey, I’m so sorry. There’s always people we can’t save, and I know you are going to blame yourself, but try not to. War is cruel, and no matter what we do it always will be. It’s not your fault.”  
  
Poe didn’t know how long they stood like that, but Rey seemed fairly content to be held, and he was more than happy to hold her. The more desperate parts of his mind wanted to kiss away her tears, but he really couldn’t see that flying just at the moment, so instead he squeezed her a little tighter, his heart breaking just a bit with her pain. She squished him back, just for a half-second, and then let go and moved back, giving her space to wipe her face on her sleeve.  
  
“Come on, sunshine, I’ll walk you to your rooms.” He gathered up her crutches and let her lean her weight on him.  
  
Rey paused with her hand on her door, turning to look up at Poe. “Thank you, again. You always seem to know what I need.”  
  
He smiled a little sadly at her. “It’s a special gift.” He watched her lower lip as she worried it between her teeth, waiting patiently for her to decide what she wanted to do.  
  
She chickened out at the last moment, ducking her head, and muttering about bed, whispering a soft goodnight to him just as her door closed. He leaned his head against it, thinking that a cold night walk might be exactly what he needs. He hadn’t had the chance to get the full layout of the base, which was probably not something he needed to do at that moment exactly, but would be a good chance to get one particular woman off of his mind.  
  
Rey was in his garage the next morning, still poking around at her speeder, as if nothing had changed. She had her broken foot propped up on the seat, and was caught up in some re-wiring when he snuck up on her, only making her electrocute herself a little bit. She glared at him for the offence, but it was a hard battle on her face that was finally won over by a smile.  
  
“Luke says I can’t train until my foot is better, so I’m all yours for the next two weeks. Well almost all yours. He gave me a bunch of books to read ‘in my spare time’.” She glared at the stack next to her. “I don’t think he realises reading wasn’t exactly a priority on Jakku.”  
  
“You can’t read?” Poe hoped he came across curious rather than incredulous.  
  
“I can read, I’m just so slow, Poe, and these books are not easy.” She looked frustrated. “I just hope he doesn’t expect it done by the time my foot as healed.”  
  
Poe was sorting through the stack. A bunch of lore, something about fighting forms, and a tiny volume on lightsaber use and building. “Well this one you should like.” He held it up for her inspection, she nodded her assent, and he tossed it back on the pile.  
  
“Okay, well today will be a bit different. Some of the X-Wings took some hits in the battle, so we have a list of parts that our repair mechanics need. Think you’re up for that?”  
  
She lit up. “Let’s do this.”  
  
This was an error, Poe thought to himself as this found them, shoulders touching, hands brushing as they moved for the same bolt. Rey blushed and looked down, meeting his eyes again through her over-long eyelashes. The lunch bell rang and she jumped, banging her head on the panel above them.  
  
She rubbed at the spot, and Poe resisted asking to kiss it better for her, instead helping her down and grabbing her crutches. She handed one off to him, and grabbed his arm, just like the night before, grinning at him. “I still haven’t quite got the hang of two crutches, and you make an excellent one.”  
  
Finn was once again waiting in the mess hall for them, laying claim to a table by the window before someone else could. He looked at Rey’s arm, looped through Poe’s, and then at Poe, and then looked very pointedly at their arms and back at Poe, who could only half shrug in response. Rey was staring out the window, taking in the trees and the grass, and getting excited at the birds flying overhead.  
  
Finn looked up at her just as Rey finished eating. “Hey Rey, if you’re not too busy, do you think we could play dejarik this afternoon?” He looked so hopeful. “It’s just you won’t have Jedi training, and the medbay is swamped so I’ve kind of been on my own.”  
  
Rey looked at Poe who shrugged. “I’m not your boss, really you’re just in my shop as a favour.” Which made her laugh.  
  
“Of course, Finn. I’ve missed you.”  
  
Poe watched as they made their way away from the mess hall. Rey used both crutches just fine.  
  
“Okay, Rey, you’ve gotta see this place, you’re going to love it.” Finn was leading her through a maze of hallways. This base had clearly not been designed with military regime in mind, it was all winding corridors and large windows. He had clearly had time to explore, and Rey was hopelessly lost. He led her down a side passage that opened into a room with more windows than Rey had ever seen. One whole side looked out over the forest below, and the only light currently was the sun shining through the roof. And there were plants, thousands of them, in pots on the floor, hanging from the ceiling and the walls. She spun around in the centre as best she could.  
  
“Finn, it’s beautiful.” Her smile widened and he hugged her.  
  
“I’ve missed you so much Rey. I feel like we keep passing by each other.” She nodded against his shoulder.  
  
“Let’s go play dejarik.”  
  
They did not play dejarik, and instead ate the snacks Finn had grabbed for them on the balcony that ran around the edge of the room. Rey laughed harder than she had in weeks, letting Finn catch her up on all of the gossip on the base, describe his meetings with General Organa, and the nerves he had speaking in front of the Resistance War Council for the first time.  
  
“Rey, I was so sure they were going to arrest me. I thought ‘yep, this is it, you’ve made it this far, pretended you were some big hero, Finn, and now the jig is up’. But they didn’t! They listened to me, and took me seriously, and I realised we are actually going to make a difference here. And then I got really nervous.”  
  
Rey took his hand across the table. “But you didn’t need to be, Finn! You know what you’re doing!”  
  
“Well you think you know that until you have eight generals staring at you waiting for answers. I think I only flubbed one or two. So anyways, how have you been? How’s Luke Skywalker? How’s Poe?”  
  
“I’ve been good, Luke is strange, Poe is…Poe. We had a weird moment last night when he walked me home.”  
  
“Good weird or bad weird?”  
  
“I dunno, just like there could be more, but I don’t know if he wants that and I don’t know if I want that. I was happy with us being friends, but he looks at me sometimes like there is so much potential, and I’m just worried that I can’t meet that.” Rey pulled her knees up to her chest and rested her chin on them. “I don’t know if you noticed, Finn, but I’m not very good at people.”  
  
“Rey, you are one of the kindest people I have ever met. And I don’t think you are far off the mark with Poe.”  
  
Her eyes narrowed. “So you think I should make a move?”  
  
Finn bopped her on the end of her nose with a cookie, making her face scrunch up. “I think he would be delighted.”  
  
Rey, despite her words, had no idea how to actually “make a move” on someone, but she did put in an effort to spend as much time in the shop as she could, preferably next to Poe. Her foot healed, not as quickly as the doctor wanted, but she couldn’t help herself from testing it everyday, much to his irritation.  
  
Poe, for his part, seemed oddly distant, even with Rey’s attempted advances. He was still everywhere she was, but had quietly discouraged using him as her second crutch, and pulled back like he was burned whenever their hands touched over engines or tools.  
  
“It’s so frustrating, Finn! I don’t know what I did!” Rey splashed some tea out of her cup with her emphasis. “I don’t know what to do to make myself clearer, I am so terrible at this.”  
  
Finn carefully removed the cup from her hand, effectively preventing a tea-related disaster, and put it down on the table. They were in the solarium again, having carved out the space for their own.  
  
“Maybe be more explicit?” At Rey’s frown, he backtracked. “Not like that! Just more forward about your feelings? Just say it straight out.”  
  
“I guess, but how do you bring that up in casual conversation? ‘Oh hey Poe, I noticed that you tried to kiss me the other night, and I blatantly refused you, let’s try that again’?”  
  
Quickly, their afternoon devolved into terrible enactments of potential ways the conversation could go, finally ending only with Rey throwing herself on the cool floor, succumbing to giggles.  
  
“I don’t think this is going to work.”  
  
Finn offered his hand and hauled her to her feet. “Nah, but I think it’s a good start. I really thought that last scene could have panned out for you.”  
  
Rey broke out into giggles again, only made worse by Poe’s entrance. He looked between her and Finn, a clear question walking across his face before he shook his head and called them both to dinner.  
  
“You know what, my back’s really been bugging me, I think I’m going to turn in early.” Finn waved them off when they got to the hall and turned towards his quarters. “I’ll see you both tomorrow.”  
  
Rey’s last sight of him was her looking over her shoulder, trying to convey her panic, and irritation, only to be met with a cheery wave as he turned around the corner.  
  
“So-“  
  
“So,” Poe started off, cutting her off. They both waited for just a beat too long before laughing awkwardly and trying to both start again. Finally Rey gave up and put her fingers over his lips.  
  
“Okay, you talk first, then I talk, got it?” He nodded against her hand.  
  
“So, your foot’s been feeling good?” He scratched the back of his neck. “Honestly, Rey I was just going to make small talk, maybe you should have talked first.”  
  
She smiled down at her feet. “That’s all I was going to do too. So, the shop was good today?” She looked up in time to catch his smile.  
  
“Hey, Poe?” She grabbed his arm and stopped him before their path took them onto the main hall leading to the mess. “I’ve been thinking about some stuff, and I’ve been meaning to talk to you, and-”  
  
Her breath caught in her throat as he cradled her face in his hands and pulled her to him for a kiss, deepening it when she threw her arms around his neck, and stepped in so their chests were pressed together. He pulled back, stroking his thumbs down her cheeks, and she felt his smile when she pulled him back down for another.  
  
“Sorry, that was the second time I’ve cut you off today.” Poe slid his arms around Rey’s waist and let her lean back against him. “What were you saying?”  
  
The corners of her eyes crinkled up as she suppressed her laugh. “Basically that, so no complaints here. Your way was much more succinct.”  
  
He placed a peck on the end of her nose, and they were interrupted by whistles and catcalls as the pilots began to walk in from training to dinner. Rey leaned her head on Poe’s shoulder, laughing silently.  
  
“I guess we aren’t going to get to keep this quiet, hey?” Poe stepped back from the embrace, but kept his arm looped around her.  
  
“No, I don’t think that’s going to work out for us.” Rey looked up, and happily accepted the offered kiss as they made their way over to their friends.  
  
  


**Author's Note:**

> Apparently my options for writing are either "fluffy fluff" or "murder". I hope you enjoyed!
> 
> You can find me on [Tumblr](http://oh-emdee.tumblr.com/)!


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